Coach Ian – Week In Review: 08/01/2021
Book I’m Reading
North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail
By Scott Jurek and Jenny Jurek
Run Streak and Running Goals:
Progress: As of 8/1/21, I’ve now run 919 miles for the year, while maintaining my 213-day run streak.
Share of the Week:
Get all caught up on the boxers representing our US Olympic Boxing team!
Olympic Boxing:
I’m finally starting to get caught up on the Olympic Boxing events. Most fights are happening at around 2AM my time, so I don’t actually get to catch it live.
I end up finding the fights on NBC Olympics’ website – bookmark that site!
So far I’ve watched the earlier fights of Duke Ragan, Keyshawn Davis, Delante Johnson, and Yarisel Ramirez.
Duke Ragan’s first fight was made ugly by his opponent, Samuel Kistohurry. Kistohurry is already pro as well, and he seems to like to bully his opponents around. I really didn’t like all the holding and hitting behind the head, which made it hard for Duke Ragan to settle into his game. He still landed the cleaner punches and was able to advance in a close decision.
Keyshawn Davis has been impressive, as expected, so far. Going into the Olympics, I favored Keyshawn Davis, Richard Torres, and Virginia Fuchs as the most likely candidates to medal. Keyshawn won easily against Enrico La Cruz and scorred a stoppage victory over 2016 silver medalist Sofiane Oumiha. Most impressive, was his breakdown of the fight and explanation of his mindset, after the fight on IG live. Keyshawn’s a likeable guy and also a very intelligent fighter.
Delante Johnson got off the deck to win a split decision against Brian Arregui. He’s slick, boxes well, but I’m not a huge fan of how low he keeps his hands – the reason why he got dropped. He had two more fights and ultimately lost to the Cuban Roniel Iglesias, a guy with well over 300 amateur fights. Delante Johnson is a super talented fighter that I’ll keep my eyes on in the pros.
Yarisel Ramirez lost in the first round against Nikolina Cacic, a taller, rangier fighter who was able to box her from the outside. Yarisel’s story to the Olympics is quite incredible, with her learning she may have a chance to compete 2 months ago. She quit her job, stopped school, and dropped 40 lbs to train for the experience. That in and of itself is quite incredible.
I’m not sure why Andrea Medina, Lupe Gutierrez, and Isamary Aquino weren’t given the chance at the spot, especially with Andrea Medina and Isamary Aquino beating Yarisel earlier in the year. Regardless of how it happened, congrats to Yarisel for seizing the opportunity and putting on a good performance in the Olympics.
Article of the Week: Race Report: The Big Chief 50K
I had some time to digest my last ultramarathon, the Big Chief 50K and wrote about all of the things I learned, including:
- Why athletes like Eliud Kipchoge are using glucose monitors to prepare for races
- The best time to fuel during your race. It’s not pre-race as that and the onset of exercise causes a blood sugar crash immediately
- How my glucose monitor impacted my fueling and race strategy
- Two startups (Levels Health and Supersapiens) and their differing philosophies for maintaining healthy blood sugar levels
- Why I stay away from most gels and how the steady glucose impact of UCAN gels helped my performance
- How the elevation impacted me and how I used my (surprising) heart-rate data to determine my pacing
- Why I started my ultra with an empty hydration pack, and
- My overall experience from the Big Chief 50k!
This Week at Dreamland Boxing:
Our classes have been increased to 16 people per class. Also, open gym hours have been extended from 9:30AM to 12:30PM and a Beginner’s Boxing Class on Saturdays at noon with Coach Eric. See the full updates here.
Dreamland Boxing has re-opened for outdoor classes. Classes will be capped and there will be no waitlist for classes. Come join me on Fridays at 4:30PM for a workout!
Also, I have continued to host our virtual boxing sessions. Thank you to our members for keeping your memberships active and continuing to support our gym during this time. And I’m personally glad to have been able to aid in your boxing development all year!
Our virtual practices this week featured the following:
- Range drills
- Working the body
- Slipping and rolling
- Body weight circuits
- Kettlebell Single-Arm Swings and Turkish Get-Ups
- And more!
You can find a full list of drills if you are a current Dreamland Boxing member in the Premium Drills section of my website.
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